Theme: To Be of Service

The city of Colorado Springs boasts five military bases including the US Air Force Academy, over 2000 nonprofits, and a robust aerospace industry. We have a growing business community including manufacturing and service industries. Our area also boasts two major medical care providers with multiple campuses and many smaller facilities and clinics. We are the home of Colorado College, the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs campus (UCCS), and several for profit higher education campuses including Colorado Technical University.

Our local culture is one of service. This thread is common to the military and aerospace communities, the nonprofit sector, medical service providers, educators, and successful entrepreneurs. The TEDxColoradoSprings 2016 theme, “To Be of Service,” spans all of these industries and honors the spirit of volunteerism that is so pervasive among our citizens.

Update: This event is sold out 10/26/16

Stargazers Theater
10 S Parkside Drive
Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80910
United States

Andrew Elsass

Freelance Writer and editor

Andrew is a freelance writer and editor originally from Springboro, Ohio. Before deciding to write full-time, he worked in the PR realm for several different professional, collegiate, and Olympic-related sports organizations, the latter of which brought him to Colorado Springs in 2013. That same year he devised 90 Strangers In 30 Days, a social experiment and challenge he hoped would alleviate the shyness and social anxiety he had struggled with for most of his life. A reddit post he wrote afterwards about the experiment received over 1,000 upvotes in 24 hours, and three years later remains one of the most-read posts of all-time on the site’s r/socialskills board. He continues to explore ways (such as TEDx) in which he can spread and evolve this idea, and the following summer did a similar experiment called 90 Compliments In 30 Days. An alum of The Ohio State University with a degree in communication, he is the author of two books and is working on a third (which pertains to his TEDx

Jan Erickson

Founder, Owner and President of Janska, LLC

In 2003, Janska President Jan Erickson had a life-changing dream to create a soft, fashionable jacket for Jean, a friend who felt she had lost her beauty to illness. Jan’s inspirational ͞ah ha͟moment – that drive to help women everywhere ͞Look Good. Feel Good͟– remains at the heart of Janska today, a company of USA-made women's outerwear and accessories that’s sold in hundreds of stores and catalogs across the U.S. and Canada. As a United States manufacturer committed to sustainability, excellence, stewardship and integrity, Jan has earned many awards, including the SBA’s 2014 Colorado Small Business Person of the Year and the 2014 Accolades Business Leader of the Year by the Southern Colorado Women’s Chamber. Her versatile collections of easy, flattering apparel designs also made Janska a Colorado Company to Watch in 2013. Committed to life-long learning, Jan acquired her Advanced Communicator Silver and Competent Leadership cert

Jenny Schell

Founder, Design Rangers

Colorado Springs native, Jenny Schell, is a proud Pikes Peak Community College graduate with an AAS degree in Graphic Design. In 2007, she co-founded Design Rangers out of a longing to be in control of her future, and to model to her two young sons that each of us have the power to design our life. Jenny has been deeply involved in the community for many years, joining with other local designers to create Wild Fire Tees during the Waldo Canyon Fire, acting as Creative Director for local philanthropic initiative Give!, and sharing stories of hope from her eclectic childhood as keynote speaker at Care and Share Food Bank’s 2015 fundraising luncheon, Recipe for Hope. Most recently, Jenny was honored to have a portion of her childhood story featured in Walmart’s 2016 "Fight Hunger. Spark Change." campaign which raised more than $17M for Feeding America member food banks, including $107,000 for Care and Share.

Jesse Wilson

Principal, Lessons From the Stage

Jesse Wilson is a Communications Specialist and Presentation Trainer and Coach. A graduate of The Juilliard School in Theater Arts, in 2012, he developed a Theater-Behind-Bars program for inmates called Crossroads. The program helped inmates make powerful changes in their lives. The experience resulted in Wilson developing Lessons From the Stage, a company that helps "Lawyers, Leaders, and the rest of The Human Race" connect, communicate and lead with their greatest source of power through the tools and strategies of the theater.

Jill Davis

Author, Coach

Jill Davis spent the majority of her adult life morbidly obese. She lost 135 pounds and along the way regained her identity. Through her own journey, research, and working with thousands of women in transition, Jill discovered that the move from body shaming to body acceptance is only possible when we shed the belief that we are intrinsically good or bad based on the foods we eat and instead trust our bodies to tell us what they need. When we embrace ourselves, we can explore the possibilities of who we can become and discover the best in ourselves. Through workshops, keynote speaking, and one-on-one coaching, Jill helps women to quit fighting their weight and start finding their way. 

Kevin Brousard

Athlete, Speaker

Born with StarGardt’s Disease, a rare retinal disorder, Kevin Brousard has been blind since birth. The target of bullying and ridicule as a child, he found an outlet through the world of adaptive sports. In track and field, Brousard has amassed 3 world titles, 3 Pan American titles and the US Paralympic record in the discus. He currently trains in the sport of judo at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, with hopes of representing Team USA at the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo. Outside of sports, Brousard works as the Membership and Outreach Coordinator for the United States Association of Blind Athletes, a member organization of the US Olympic Committee. Having earned a bachelor’s degree in Broadcasting from the University of La Verne, Brousard speaks to audiences on a wide range of topics, including anti-bullying tactics, suicide prevention, overcoming adversity and goal-setting.

Kevin White

Founder, Denver Gives

“Give a man a fish, feed him for a day; Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime” is the mantra of Kevin J White a social entrepreneur with over 25-years experience working in the nonprofit sector. Starting out as a counselor of at-risk children and moving through the sector in various positions, Kevin eventually co-founded a 501(c)(3) public charity in 2008. Denver Gives’ mission is to provide low to no-cost capacity building resources to help small and local nonprofits meet more community needs! As he progressed through the nonprofit sector he began to see opportunities which would lead him on the journey to social entrepreneur. Two projects currently under development are MADvolunteer.com and the DoingGood.ROCKS platform. Both are designed to connect small nonprofit organizations to volunteers, donors, companies and other resources in their communities. Kevin’s vision is that the ripple effects of connecting local resources to assist in solving world problems.

Lauren Hug

Attorney

An accomplished speaker, author, and strategist, Lauren Hug has helped people reach and move audiences for 20years. In 2012 she founded HugSpeak, a digital marketing firm specializing in social media strategy, integrated brand communications, and custom market research. With insightful questions and intense listening, Lauren cuts to the core of each client’s identity, leveraging their uniqueness to understand and move target markets. Her academic credentials include an LL.M. with merit from the University of London, a J.D. with honors from the University of Texas School of Law, and a Bachelor of Journalism and Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from the University of Texas. She is the author of two business skills books and a soon-to-be-released book on digital kindness. She is also an attorney, a certified mediator, and an occasional Instructor at University of Colorado Colorado Springs.

Mary C. Boardman

Researcher

Dr. Mary C. Boardman is a social scientist with expertise in philanthropy, entrepreneurship, entrepreneurial cognition, and intelligence analysis. She holds positions as a methodologist for Globalytica, LLC, affiliate faculty in the Business and Technology Division at Colorado Christian University, and is a courtesy professor in the School of Library and Information Science at the University of South Florida. Dr. Boardman has published articles in peer-reviewed journals including Small Business Economics, Public Administration Review, and World Health and Medical Policy. She is also an editor of the forthcoming Handbook of Research Methodologies and Design in Neuroentrepreneurship. Dr. Boardman holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy from the Schar School of Policy and Government at George Mason University. She also holds an MPP from Pepperdine University and a BBA in International Business from the University of Oklahoma.